State seeks inquiry into patient's death

Melissa Iaria

POLICE will wait for the results of an autopsy and forensic testing before continuing their investigation into the death of a psychiatric patient at a Fairfield facility on Thursday.

A man’s body was found in a room at the high-security Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital on Thursday morning, while it’s believed another patient was also attacked.

It is understood the man died as a result of strangulation.

While no one has been charged, it is understood career criminal Lee Johnson is a person of interest.

On Saturday, a police spokeswoman said detectives were still awaiting the results of an autopsy on the body of the deceased, and the outcome of other forensic tests and had not as yet conducted any formal interviews.

On Friday, the state opposition called for an inquiry into the death, the third in as many years at the hospital.

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Labor’s spokesman for mental health, Wade Noonan, said a broader review is needed, in addition to a coronial inquiry, to ensure Victorians have confidence in the care of vulnerable patients and in the conditions for mental health workers.

‘‘It would be reasonable to expect that the chief psychiatrist would seek the assistance of a panel, including senior psychiatrists and an interstate clinician to investigate the circumstances of this death,’’ he said.

Under the Mental Health Act, health services must report to the chief psychiatrist the death of any person receiving treatment or care for a mental disorder.

Mr Noonan said the Victorian government must make public the findings, recommendations and its response to the chief psychiatrist’s report.

If the latest death is confirmed as a homicide, it will be the third such death at the facility after psychiatric patient Peko Lakovski fatally stabbed two fellow inmates in 2009.

A state government spokeswoman said all appropriate inquiries will be completed.

‘‘The publication of those will be subject to appropriate considerations such as any privacy and judicial considerations,’’ she said.

Most patients at the Thomas Embling facility are either prisoners who have become too mentally unwell to be treated in prison, or people who have been found not guilty of crimes due to mental impairment.